Strategic Planning For International Travel - Essay Example

1 STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL. EVALUATION OF THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL STRATEGY It is a reality in this age and times that tourism is a valuable aspect in any nation’s economy. It is a complete folly not to take advantage of whatever beauty and attractiveness any nation may be gifted with because tourists contribute to a nation’s sustainable economy. Even African nations take advantage of its wilderness and its wild habitat by organising safaris for adventurous foreigners. Even desert-states organise desert treks, following the footsteps of Lawrence of Arabia. Spain’s economy was revived, after an economic slump, because of its success in luring visitors mostly to its sun-sea-sand tourism strategy and in 2006 alone, its tourism accounted for 12% of its GDP and brought employment to thousands of its citizens. Today, Spain is next to France in terms of number of tourists and is next to USA in terms of value of tourism sales (Travel and tourism in Spain). Another nation which economy got a badly needed shot in the arm and made a spurious revival of its economy, thanks to its beach and sex tour strategy is Thailand. New Zealand, at the moment, is poised to aggressively attract visitors to its pristine mountains, geysers, lakes and its clean environment. Prime Minister Helen Clarke believes that tourism will give New Zealand unprecedented prosperity. For its travel strategy, it intends to use “the national traits of guardianship and hospitality”. Clarke dictates that there must be a vision and must have a foundation or underpinning to which everything else is attached (New Zealand tourism strategy 2015, p.1). The UK, still exulting after bagging the privilege of hosting the 2012 Olympic Games and the paralympic games, has realised the importance of fortifying its tourism industry even beyond 2012 and the fact that for it to be successful in this endeavour, it must have a solid 2 travel and tourism strategy, both international and domestic. It has refurbished its VisitBritain tourism agency “to promote Britain internationally in 36 markets so as to generate wealth and jobs across Britain” (VisitBritain, the national tourism agency). To do this, it must foster partnership with private entities and provide them with all the support including advice and needed information. UK has also encouraged the GTBS or Green Tourism Business Scheme, which has “over 1400 members” in its efforts to lure tourists to savor “a green holiday” consisting of pristine scenery, pure unadulterated air and water with biodiversity to boot. This, here, is a fine example of public-private partnership to push through tourism success. The 1,400 private members do the funding while the government sets the right environmental climate for tourism success so in the final analysis, their investments will be recouped in the form of glorious profits. It has been established that Scotland is now the leading ecotourism destination in Europe as 92% of these trekkers ranked scenery as one important factor that made them decide to visit Scotland for their holiday destination. (Green tourism business scheme). As of today, “the UK’s flourishing tourism industry generates over 85 billion pounds a year for the British economy. It is one of our biggest employers, directly responsible for 1.4 million jobs, or one in every 20 people in work” (Purnell 2008, p.1). But this statistic is mere pittance compared to those of USA, Spain, France, Thailand, and the rest of them. UK has to catch up, for more prosperity’s sake and more employment for its citizenry. It’s winning the hosting of the 2012 Olympic Games is one golden opportunity it must harness to make a clean break and put itself at the forefront of the leading and premier tourism destinations in the world. There is no way it can do this without an effective international travel strategy. Like any other business concern, success hinges on the quality of its strategy. UK must have a mission and this 3 has been decided to be 3-pronged i.e. meeting rising expectations-that it can successfully bring economic and social benefits to UK and can generate more employment and wealth in tandem with national pride to the effect that there be a better quality of life for all Britons because success is tantamount to better prospects for health, environment, education and most especially employment (Sands 2005, p.1); capturing new markets; and addressing the change of visitor needs. Prior to establishing a really efficacious and surefire travel strategy, one must understand the nature of tourism, its classification, the factors that facilitate the industry of tourism in any country, the basic components of tourism and the main requirements of the tourism industry. Without these, the travel strategy may be half-baked or may lack backbone and efficacy and eventually fails. Tourism is basically a system that is related to sociological sphere. It is an industry whose “products are consumed on the spot forming invisible exports or termed under services. The benefits accruing therefrom can be witnessed in the economic, cultural and social life of its community. In tourism, there are either individuals or free and independent travelers or group tourists who are tourists organised by a travel agency in the accompaniment of a tour leader. The purposes of why a tourist travels are also varied ranging from recreation to leisure or pleasure to cultural enrichment wherein cultural tourists are interested to visit cultural events, fairs and exhibitions, museums, places of national interest such as the Stonehenge, Hadrian’s Wall, medieval historical castles which were the residences of renowned or notorious kings and queens. Tourists may also visit UK for health and medical reasons as for example, for a reconstructive surgery. These health buffs are expected to search for spas, hot springs or the 4 clinics of famous doctors and surgeons. There are also sports tourists who may come to see Wimbledon tennis action in the flesh or to trek the famed Scottish Highlands or for fishing and skin diving in one of UK’s many islands or to go bird or deer hunting as UK is notorious for a loose control of environmental laws for the protection of its bird or animal habitats. There are also the so-called conference tourists who come for professional, scientific, political gatherings and even film festivals, although UK has not gained a reputation as a mecca for film festivals the same way that Cannes or Berlin had. The fact that it is cheaper to travel in any tourist destination whose cost of living is relatively low and whose exchange rate is favorable to the tourist already gives that tourism centre a preeminent advantage. Other factors that would facilitate its status as a natural mecca for tourists are its climate; access to by transportation and its infrastructure; tourist attractions; facilities; proximity to tourists’ places of residence; political stability; government or legislative policies of tourism; sanitation and healthful conditions; the residents attitude to tourists i.e. hospitality; security against terrorism and breakdown of law and order and contracts with travel agencies who are expected to make use of internet sales and provide dynamic travel packaging. All travel strategies must consider all of these above aspects. As part of travel strategy, one must offer to prospective tourists, excellent hotel accommodations for affluent travelers and cheaper but clean and safe lodging for economising travelers. Concomitant with these hotels, motels, inns, pensionne houses accommodations are good restaurants and coffee shops. VisitBritain must never lose sight also in controlling the efficient and honest operations of bona-fide tour operators, transport businesses, travel agencies, and rent-a-car operators. It must also be able to recommend to tourists beforehand a list of high-quality entertainment spots i.e. theatres, night clubs, casinos, sports and recreation establishments 5 as well as shopping facilities that may cater to the needs of these travelers. All of these should be summarised in one glossy brochure. An essential requisite of an effective international travel strategy, which happens also to be the first stage of such strategy is careful planning. Research should be done as to why tourists flock in hordes to USA, Spain, France and the other ‘giants’ in the tourism industry. If VisitBritain strategists do their homework conscientiously, they will find out that tourists travel for any of the following reasons: “to relax away from busy, stressful lives; to explore the outdoors, the beautiful countryside and coastline and breathe fresh air; to discover places, attractions, events that have been on their ‘wish list’ of places to see; to experience time with family and friends and build shared memories for the future” (Sands 2005, p.5). Also part of the planning is the safeguarding of Britain’s historical and cultural values as well as heritage sites. Stonehenge has been declared one of the seven wonders of the world. Hadrian’s Wall and several medieval castles have also been deemed as UNESCO heritage sights. Britain’s Hedgerows is what makes UK landscape unique and fetching not to mention it is contributory to the fight against global warming. This manipulation of several shrubs to create land enclosures had been endangered by “myopic government policies and the inexorable creep of suburbs and shopping malls” (Bryson 1993, p. 102). The government must move heaven and earth and even by legislation to protect this unique British landscaping for the tourists’ appreciation and enjoyment. Another challenge to the adventurous and sports-loving tourists and which VisitBritain must protect and enhance is the Pennine Way, “which is a hiking trail along the spine of England” (Yeadon 1986, p. 394). Along the way, it affords fantastic views and enable the tourists to commune with nature and thus release them from their frayed nerves and stresses. If there’s anything that UK must preserve, it should be sights and scenes associated 6 with the world’s most acclaimed poet, William Shakespeare because mere mention of England brings to mind its most renowned son, Shakespeare. UK must take pains to preserve his birthplace, school, church and daughter’s residence in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire because the tourists deem it a pilgrimage to retrace his life and his environs out of a sense of history and curiosity (Wright 1964, p.168). UK is hardly a place without a riotous, fun-filled festival that hedonistic and fun-loving tourists would surely revel in. It has its Notting Hill Carnival, which if properly organised and maximized, might rival Rio de Janeiro’s Mardi Gras Festival (Worrall 2000, p. 7). Fantastic tourist attractions would be worthless in the face of poor, inutile marketing strategy. This may spell the difference between winning and failure. The best and most qualified people to compose the marketing think-thank should be hired to take charge of tourism promotion, advertising and public relations and find the opportunities and problems germane to tourism (Hughes 1978, p. 354). It is an added advantage to have overseas tourism offices in key countries where most of the tourists come from. These marketing experts should be aggressive and must use daring and unique branding to paint a diverse and attractive image of UK as well as to improve world-wide perception of UK, all of which are designed to magnetise tourists to come to its fold. Related to this marketing strategy is the recruitment and selection of appropriately skilled staff and motivate and train them in the best way to interact with travelers face-to-face. VisitBritain has been designated as UK’s national tourism agency and as such UK properly devolves upon it, the responsibility of controlling and coordinating UK’s tourism industry. It is thus, the baton wielder maestro controlling and harmonizing the different travel agencies, the hotels and other accommodations, the transportation suppliers, the caterers, the souvenir providers and the private sector i.e the professional organizations , non-profit organizations and private businesses. This public-private partnership is essential to the success 7 of tourism. Both must build a strong bond and must recognize each other’s contribution to tourism. VisitBritain must always ensure that these private entities do not go out of bounds, legal or ethical-wise and do not abuse the confidence resided in them. At the same time, the government must encourage the private sector to put in a bigger outlay in terms of investments in the hotel, transport or any service it is offering to the tourists,\. These private entities compose the biggest share in the funding of the tourism business, what with their investments in airplanes, ships, hotels, taxis etc. The government does its part by providing the needed infrastructure such as modernisation of airports and the provision of sophisticated road network that makes travel easier and faster. Unluckily though, it is in the transport infrastructure field that many have found unresponsive to the needs of modern tourists. It is bewailed that there is a lack of comprehensive and integrated public transport system. It is claimed that even if parts of UK have excellent highways, railways and bus transport system and air transport system is continuously improving with the opening of more routes to a wider global market, yet it is claimed that at peak periods, which happen to be the time that tourists travel, there is a sorry congestion and traffic problems that make it difficult for tourists to move to and fro UK and effectively diminish their enjoyment of their stay. Particularly lamented is the east-west routes and the East Coast main line. What is being invoked is that government improves the capacities of these major rail and highway routes (Sands 2005, p.2). Another deplorable public transport weakness is the rural public transport, wherein tourists generally are not provided with appropriate transport vehicles such as buses and railways that have the capacity to carry their vehicles. While Spain has succeeded in using the internet and the web to provide hotel accommodations, cars-for-rent, bookings and ticketing as well as holiday insurance for the tourists , Britain’s services using the Web leaves much to be desired and needs more 8 improvement (Sands 2005, p.3). As mentioned beforehand, Britain has its Pennine Way and other leisure activities that require cycling and trekking by foot. But the present infrastructure of cycleways, bridleways and footpaths badly need maintenance and must be fully developed to make them the best in Europe. Not only that, these footpaths and cycleways need signage to direct the foreign visitors to the tourism sites and to ensure they will not lose their way. A Tourism Signing Strategy is in fact necessary in all major tourist attractions and must be the responsibility of not only tourism officials but also the local officials, the highway authorities and the private operators, who are expected to actively contribute in its funding. It is observed that tourists arrive by air, sea, rail or land to what is called as ‘gateway locations’ and from thence on travel to their projected tourist destinations. Thus, to maximise service to these tourists, VisitBritain must focus on the transport links between these two locations and provide efficient traffic management to facilitate the visitors’ tours. Lastly, to be effective there must be cooperation between everybody involved in tourism i.e VisitBritain, the private operators of accommodations, transport operators not to mention cross-border cooperation between different districts and localities. It should be noteworthy to mention that today there is a revolution in both air and land transportation with the introduction of Boeing’s Dreamliner 787, which is expected to go in full operation by mid-2008. Dreamliner 787 was given the monicker ‘plastic airplane’ because it is 50% composed of carbon fibre composites, which had replaced steel, aluminum and other metals as structural components of airplanes. Mr. Alan Mullaly, Boeing president, expressed the intention to make this Dreamliner 100% carbon fibre composite in the future. It is so because, with carbon fibres, the airplane becomes very light, strong, rigid, non-corrosive and can withstand very high temperatures (Boeing 2006). It is hoped that with carbon fibre composites 9 expenses for renovation and maintenance would be slashed down and more importantly a decrease in fuel consumption. Thus, ultimately airfares would significantly be decreased and thus, would encourage more tourists to come and to revitalise both the aviation and the tourism industry.. Likewise with the advent of carbon fibre composites replacing metals such as steel, the land transportation industry will also experience a jolting revolution as Mercedes Benz unfurled its SLR Mercedes McLaren, whose body shell is mainly carbon fibres. This car is very light, strong, rigid and non-corrosive. In formula racing, its lightness is vital as it leads to better performance and improved efficiency (Mercedes Benz 2005). It is expected that in a few years time, buses, railways, ships will be made mostly of carbon fibres thus, revitalising also the land transportation industry as well as tourism industry and giving a positive boon to society in general. A good, efficient, international travel strategy is a requisite for success in UK’s tourism industry because only with an efficacious strategy can UK outfox and grab a hefty share of the tourism market. And it must do so because tourism is a leading contributor to a sustainable economy and gives employment to so many of the citizenry and revitalizes the economy because it gives a thriving and brisk business to the accommodation, transport, catering, souvenir and a host of other businesses which they later realise that the investments they put to serve the tourism industry is worth it because of the gargantuan profits they reap due to the success of the tourism industry. 10 REFERENCES Boeing 2006, Plastic planes set to rule sky. Available from: BBC News/science/nature/plasticplanessettorulesky. Bryson, B 1993, Britain’s hedgerows, National Geographic, Sept. 1993. Green tourism business scheme. www.greentourism.org.uk/default.aspx:locID.008006006.wkm. Hughes, D 1978 Marketing management, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.: Massachussetts. Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren 2005, First drive review. www.caranddriver.com/.../german- performance. New Zealand tourism strategy 2015, Nov. 7, 2007. www.NZtourismstrategy.com/.9k. Sands, J North East England tourism strategy 2005-2010. www.onenortheast.co.uk/lib/lireport/983/ONE%20Report%.2013454-01.pdf. Purnell, J Winning: A tourism strategy for 2012 and beyond. mediafiles.thedms.co.uk/Publication/os-bx/cms/pdf/tourismstrategy for2012-fullreport.pdf. Travel and tourism in Spain. www.euromonitor.com/travel-and-tourism in Spain. VisitBritain-the National tourism agency. www.tourismtrade.org.uk/-21k. Worrall, S 2000, London on a roll. National Geographic. Vol.197,no.6, June 2000. Wright, l 1964, The Britain that Shakespeare knew. National Geographic. Vol 125, no.5, May 1964. Yeadon, D 1986, To Scotland and afoot along the Pennine Way. National Geographic. Vol 169, no.3, March 1986. Read More